Centrino officially unveiled by Intel on March 12

Intel has officially launched its new Centrino Chipset. The set consists of three parts, a new energy efficient Pentium-M Processor (codename 'Banias'), a support chipset and a 802.11b wireless LAN adapter. Later versions of the Centrino due to be ready by mid year will include the wireless adapter on the Pentium-M processor.

The new Pentium-M Processor will save power while outperforming current Pentium-4 models. Early independent tests have shown that a Pentium-M 1.6 GHZ will outperform a 2.5GHZ Pentium-4M by 10-15% with up to seven hours (!) of battery time.

A series of manufacturers have announced laptops based on the new Intel Centrino chipset. These include Dell with the Inspiron 600M, Toshiba with the Protege R100 and IBM with the T40 thinkpad model. IBM claims to have doubled the battery life of the T40 to 5.5 hours compared to the predecessor model T30 using a standard Pentium-4M chip.

The Centrino launch will be accompanied by one of the largest Intel margeting campaigns ever seen. We feel confident that Intel's commitment will kickstart awareness of wireless internet connectivity using Wi-Fi enormously. Today the power saving features of the new Pentium-M will help a lot to achieve better battery life time. Another major improvement will be achieved, when the wireless module is fully integrated in the processor by mid year. Wi-Fi will just become part of your standard laptop experience. By the end of 2003 an estimated 35% of all shipped laptops will include Wireless LAN.